Music Connection – July 18, 1993

L.A. Radio Wars

July 18, 1993

…While things do indeed look dubious at the KMPC camp with the station having axed some of its most engaging personalities recently, Tyler Suchman, producer of Fred Wallin’s morning show, says there is plenty of room for optimism. “Sports radio has a lot of appeal for people wanting to find out information as it happens,” he states. Suchman reports that KMPC has recently decided to alter its all-sports strategy and will augment its hoops and hardball banter with current events and topical information as well.

“We had a number of negative calls due to a segment featuring an author talking about his new book The One Hour Orgasm,” cites Suchman on the strangely Stern-like topic. “But people are coming around steadily. Ten days after we aired the show, we were still receiving calls from people asking for the 800 phone number so they could order copies of the book. Obviously, when you stray from the style that people have grown accustomed to, you will lose some of your listeners – that can’t be helped. But the most disastrous move a station can make is to stay complacent.”

Suchman has a valid point. And one man who has risen to the top of the talk heap like a phoenix leaving his peers light years below is KFI’s Limbaugh, a man who has espoused the “change is better” philosophy since his show’s debut. Though the rotund hellraiser failed to return a half a dozen calls from Music Connection, his success speaks for him on every shore on the continent.